A premonitory book?
Alexandra Goujon does not consider her book to be prescient, since as she likes to point out, the conflict did not begin on 24 February 2022. For the Ukrainians, the Russian offensive is indeed the 2e stage of a war that began with the annexation of Crimea at the end of February 2014. It is also the development of a conflict that has raged in the Ukrainian Donbass mining basin since the spring of 2014, between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists that left 14,000 dead before the massive invasion in February 2022. On 11 May 2014, independence referendums were held in the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Is the Russian world just one people?
Alexandra Goujon points out that Russia has always existed as an imperial state, both during the Russian Empire and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between 1922 and 1991. At the time of the USSR, there was a hierarchy between peoples that contradicted the official discourse of fraternity. Ukrainians were seen as inferior to Russians, reflecting their status as "Little Russians" in the Empire. Today, the Russian political authorities are still pursuing this imperial policy of territorial conquest. This war was not simply a war of annexation. Its aim is to reduce the territory of the Ukrainian state as much as possible, and even to eliminate it. Russia wants Ukraine to surrender and change its government. If there is a military invasion, it is because Russia was unable to obtain this change through political means.
Ukraine, a small country in the "Russian world"?
Alexandra Goujon has been working on Ukraine since the 1990s, a subject that some researchers considered to be of little importance: "a minor country". She points out that French historiography has adopted this Russian, and then Soviet, historiography, considering Ukraine as the periphery of Russia. In the collective imagination, Ukraine is linked to the Russian Empire and Vladimir Putin's "Russian world". This vision dismisses Ukraine as a subject of history and presents it as an object of history. Today, Ukraine is subject to a decision by Russia to invade it, denying its legitimacy as a state. Alexandra Goujon points out that Ukrainians have a different vision of their country: "for them, they are actors and subjects of history", "they don't want to be subjected to a foreign power".
Ukraine, a buffer state?
This idea gives Ukraine limited sovereignty. As if Ukraine could not decide for itself. Since the invasion, the percentage of Ukrainians who want their country to join the European Union and NATO is close to or exceeds 80%. Alexandra Goujon looks at the Ukrainian government's desire to join and the response of the leaders of the EU and NATO member states. Joining an organisation presupposes unanimous acceptance by the other members. So you have to convince them. The EU created a neighbourhood policy for countries that were not meant to join. That was the ambiguity of the rhetoric, which saw Ukraine as part of the European "family" with no prospect of membership. But on 23 June 2022, Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status. Ukraine is moving from the European Neighbourhood Policy to the enlargement policy.
Ukraine, a fractured country?
Alexandra Goujon looks back at the image of Ukraine as "a fractured country, divided geographically, economically, politically and culturally". This heterogeneity was presented as necessarily a source of division and conflict. We did not see what could unite Ukrainians. Which explains why the national resistance came as such a surprise in the West. For Alexandra Goujon, this resistance is expressed as a mirror effect between the mobilised population and President Volodymyr Zelensky. "Zelensky is carrying his country and these citizens are carrying him". It should also be remembered that this mobilisation dates back to 2014. It is vital for Ukrainians. Alexandra Goujon quotes a Ukrainian saying: "If Russia stops fighting, the war stops. If Ukrainians stop fighting, Ukraine ceases to exist".
Alexandra Goujon is a specialist in Ukraine and Belarus, a political scientist, a lecturer at the University of Burgundy and a lecturer at Sciences Po. In "L'Ukraine de l'indépendance à la guerre", each chapter begins with an assertion that Alexandra Goujon deconstructs in order to shatter preconceived ideas. This book also takes us back to the origins of the country, to trace the links through which the past informs the present. It is about Ukraine, but also about Russia and the European Union as a whole, about transatlantic relations, and about us as Europeans involved in this war.
